Seal for



UNTTED sTATEs PATENT oEEIoE.

HENRY D. MEARS AND HOULTON, JR., OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

SEAL FOR RAILROAD FREIGHT-CARS, Snc.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 17,801, dated July 14, 1857.

To all 'whom it may'concem:

Be it known that we, HENRY D. MEARs and WILLIAM HoULToN, J r., both of the city of Baltimore and State of Maryland, have invented a new and Improved Seal Applicable to the Sealing of Railroad Freight-Cars and to other Analogous Purposes; and we do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in Which- Figure 1 is a perspective view of the seal open; Fig. 2 is a view of it closed with the rivet clenched; and Fig. 3 is a view of the seal applied to a freight car, and riveted and stamped.

The same art is indicated in all the figures by the same etter of reference.

The nature of our invention consists in making a seal for sealing freight-cars, &c., of a flexibley metallic strip or wire, of tin, zinc, sheet iron or other hard or semihard metal, having disks of lead or other soft metal of corresponding size and shape at its ends, said disks being so made that when brol'lght together they will fit each other and may be riveted and stamped in any convenient way.

In the drawings A represents the connecting strip, B the fiat dlsk which is of lead surrounded by tin.

C is the rimmed disk of tin having a rivet of lead cv in its center corresponding with rivet hole 7J in the flat disk B.

D is the door and E the door frame of a freight car which may have staples like those Vshown at F, or, which we prefer, like those at G, to which the seal is shown as being applied.

The strip A may be varied in length acf cording to the requirements of the purpose to which the seal is to be a plied. One of Y the tags or disks only need e of soft metal in order to be capable of being easily impressed by a die. The tag C has a rim around it, as shown, to receive the tag B, so that when the strip A is folded in the middle of its length, the tags shall fit snugly together. The. tag C has a rivet c of soft metal projecting from its center, which, when the tags are brought together, v passes into and through the hole b in the fiat tag or disk B.

The operation is as follewsz-The tag B is folded, if necessary, in order to pass through the staples on the door and side frame of the car arranged like those seen at F, Fig. 3. Or if the staples are of the form shown at G the tag will pass without folding. The strip A is then doubled so as to bring the hole b over the rivet c. The disks are then brought together and the rivet clenched, when the seal presents the appearance shown in Fig. 2. A suitable die is then applied by hammer, pincers, or otherwise, and a device, inscription, or corporate or private seal, transferred to the surface of the soft metal disk, as seen in Fig. 3.

We contemplate the application of our improved seal to wine cellars, express chests, mail-bags, hatches of vessels, bonded packages, and a variety of analogous purposes.

What we claim as our invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The device for sealing hereinbefore described, the same consisting of soft metallic disks connected by a strip or wire of harderl metal as described, the whole constructed and operated substantially in the manner Jsetdforth and applied to the purposes speci- The above specification signed and witnessed this eleventh day of June A. D. 1857.

HENRY D. MEARS. WM. HOULTON, JR.

Witnesses:

RoBT. B. JAEvIs, WM. E. CLARKE. 

